Scheduled for release less than a month from now, The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim, a new film about Middle Earth, has been making waves in the LOTR fan community. Not only have we been starved for good LOTR content since the depressing flop of both seasons of The Rings of Power, this time we’re getting an exquisite new look at the world of Middle Earth through the stunning lens of modern animation (the only true way to illustrate fantasy worlds, in my honest opinion).
With this refreshing medium comes an entirely new way to see the people and places of Lord of the Rings. Taking a Nausicaa-style anime approach, the trailer promises an exciting tale of a young lady at the forefront of an epic battle between kingdoms. Not unheard of as far as plot lines go in Lord of the Rings, but a new story with new and intriguing characters nonetheless.
Trailers can sometimes make or break films, and while the War of the Rohirrim English trailer certainly hooks you, it seems to me like it’s already given away most of the plot. We have a classic heroine protagonist who struggles with not being taken seriously, despite her excellent skills as a warrior, because she is a woman. Arranged marriage is discussed, she doesn’t want it but is powerless to stop it, and then BOOM, somebody’s dad gets killed and all-out war breaks out as his furious son seeks vengeance. The feminist coming-of-age premise is similar to Pixar’s BRAVE, but with a different red-headed heroine. After watching this trailer, it’s not hard to imagine where this story will take us.
The Japanese trailer, on the other hand, reveals far less, thus constructing a more intriguing mystery around the happenings of the plot. While the trailer’s narrator introduces Hèra as the young princess of Rohan and Wulf as a lord who used to be her childhood friend, little is shown about the actual buildup to the war itself. Nothing is mentioned about a marriage alliance, nor is Wulf’s father’s death. A singular line, “the throne is mine,” spoken by Wulf, illustrates the war as being motivated by his greed for power, not an accidental death.
Helm, the king of Rohan and Hèra’s father, is also not shown saying “you know nothing of war” to his determined daughter. While he does follow up with “My pride. My joy. You could rule the world” in the English trailer, his lines in the Japanese trailer are solely those of encouragement, such as “you are a beacon of hope for everyone” and “even if I fall, you can show this kingdom the way.” Although the feminist message may not come off as strongly in the Japanese trailer, it surpasses the English one by already establishing Hèra as a very capable leader and fighter who is respected by her family and peers.
The story in the Japanese version is about her leading her kingdom to victory and thus peace, not about a House of the Dragon’s Rhaenyra-like quest to prove that a woman can fight and rule just as competently as a man can. The Japanese trailer is inherently more feminist by surpassing the trivial need to show a woman in this fantasy setting struggle due to her gender.
While the English trailer has left little to the imagination, with only a few more weeks to go it will be exciting to see how the actual film unfolds.
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